Call For Speakers: Applying and speaking at conferences

Slides for my talk about public speaking. Items covered: choosing a topic and an audience, writing your speaker bio, crafting your content (storytelling, slide design, language & tone), finding and applying to speak at events and conferences, preparing for your talk.

The full written article can be found on my personal website: https://tuttiq.me/call-for-speakers/

Transcript

1. Call For
   Speakers
   Applying and speaking at
   conferences
   

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2. Who's speaking?
   Tutti Quintella (@tuttiq)
   From
   ⇒ ⇒
   Software Engineer
   ⇒ Manager
   D&I and L&D Manager @ Mercari
   Director of Women Who Code Tokyo
   Engaged in representing people and
   leadership since college (~2009)
   Public speaker since 2018
   (conferences, panels, etc)
   

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3. 01
   04
   CHOOSING A TOPIC
   AND AN AUDIENCE
   APPLYING AND
   PREPARING
   02
   03
   WRITING YOUR
   SPEAKER BIO
   CRAFTING YOUR
   CONTENT
   

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4. Reject yourself before
   you even try
   DON'T
   Try to please or
   interest everyone
   Try to make it perfect
   or bullet-proof
   DON'T
   DON'T
   

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5. Remember everyone has
   something unique to say
   DO
   Set and care for your
   target audience
   Practice, rehearse and
   get feedback
   DO
   DO
   

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6. General /
   conceptual
   knowledge
   Sweet
   spot!
   Your personal
   experiences
   Textbook,
   Lecture
   Your diary,
   Stand-up comedy
   What should I talk about?
   

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7. Topic Brainstorming
   What do you care about?
   What have you done?
   What do you know that people aren’t talking
   about?
   What are you learning?
   What was the last article/presentation you
   disagreed with or felt was not good enough?
   What did you do for the first time recently?
   What do you wish someone told you a year
   ago?
   

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8. Narrow your audience
   Who are the event attendees?
   Level of experience or
   knowledge of the topic
   Previous background
   Interests and goals
   Think of a persona
   

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9. Speaker bio
   Who's talking?
   Why are you qualified to
   talk about this topic?
   Write using the third person
   Follow the guidelines (if any)
   Short (1 paragraph) and mid
   version (2 paragraphs)
   

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10. Crafting your
    content
    Storytelling
    01
    Slide design
    02
    Language & tone
    03
    

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11. 01
    04
    CHOOSING A TOPIC
    AND AN AUDIENCE
    APPLYING AND
    PREPARING
    02
    03
    WRITING YOUR
    SPEAKER BIO
    CRAFTING YOUR
    CONTENT
    

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12. 01
    04
    BACKGROUND
    CONTEXT
    WHERE TO START
    RESULTS / CONCLUSION
    LESSONS LEARNED
    MOVING FORWARD
    (OR NOT)
    02
    03
    PROBLEM
    INTRODUCTION
    WHAT COMES NEXT
    POSSIBILITIES
    SOLUTION ATTEMPS
    TRIAL & ERROR
    UNEXPECTED EVENTS
    

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13. Slide design
    Slides with a lot of small text and low contrast are hard to read and digest the whole
    information on a glance. The audience has to choose if they will focus on trying to read
    the slide contents or pay attention to what the speaker is saying, which is never a great
    experience for your audience. Also, what is the end goal of your slides in the first place?
    Are you using them as your speaker notes so you can remember your lines (like a script)?
    Are you using them as an illustrated textbook that you want to share later without your
    talk attached to it? Ideally, for a live presentation, your slides goal should be purely to
    illustrate and guide your audience through what you are talking. There are other (better)
    ways to achieve the other goals. You can use the speaker notes section or a separate
    document to write your text. You can add hidden/skipped slides with extra text that you
    will not present, but will include when you share the slide deck later. Or you can go ahead
    and write a blog article for that ;)
    

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14. Slide design
    Little & structured text
    Big font
    High-contrast
    Illustrations, photos
    Design consistency
    Tips
    Canva.com
    Free slides themes
    Unsplash, Pexels
    Freepik, Undraw
    Colorhunt, Coolors
    Resources
    

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15. Language & tone
    Inclusiveness
    Level of fluency (on the
    language and the topic)
    Tone: casual, serious,
    inspiring, honest, funny
    What feelings do you wanna
    cause in your audience?
    Avoid extremes
    

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16. Stop trying to
    make it perfect
    Off you go, start applying already!!
    

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17. Where can I find speaking
    opportunities?
    

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18. Speaker Bio
    Title
    Description
    Talk outline, key takeaways
    Target audience / topic track
    Previous speaking experience
    Common information asked:
    Applying to
    events
    

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19. Write a script for each slide
    (but don't read it at the day)
    Rehearse (maybe record?)
    Start at small events or
    internal meetings
    Ask for feedback
    On the day, just relax (accept
    your first times will suck)
    Preparing
    for your talk
    

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20. https://speakher.jp
    

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21. Thank you
    And hope to see you speaking at some
    events in the future! :)
    Tutti Quintella
    https://tuttiq.me
    @tuttiq
    

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